[Rah]

I have more ideas for the Warriors of the North.

I was thinking about the CRIT systems. By now it is influenced by morale - from one race units, items, skills etc.

First, for GOD sake, give the special attacks the same chance for critical hits, it is very annoying at the late game to do less damage with them than with regular attacks - some units are balanced against their special attacks - Cannoneer with very low normal damage is designed to use every 3 rounds the tripple shot, or Elves... Maybe only mass abilities, like Dragon fire line or Giant's Jump could be designed to NOT critically hit.

Second, some new ideas:

At the moment we have:
+1 morale multiplies crit chance by 1.1 (or crit chance +10% more)
+2 by 1.2
+3 by 1.3 (if I remember correct but this is only an example).

This means that crit chance is only influenced by the attacker stats and conditions.

Lets use LUCK as a modifier of crit chance for defender (lowering the chance for crit hit).

The formula could be (Morale-Luck)*crit chance

If attacker has 3 morale and defender 2 luck than crit chance = 1
If attacker has 2 morale and defender 3 luck than crit chance = -1

each number of crit chance = 10% more or less probability for crit. This means that if a unit has 10% natural crit chance in the first example it would have 11% chance and in the second 9%. 20% turns into 22% or 18%.

Now lets make this system dynamic meaning some events happening during the battle have direct effect on morale and luck of the units.

One unit surrounded by 3 enemies has -1 morale (Unit is ambushed) - all three units are attacking/facing it.
One unit stack numbers halved during battle - 2 morale.
All races receive +1 further morale if on their own land; i.e. Elves on Elonya.
Morale and Luck bonuses for hero-less enemy armies, which do not apply for the player: all units from one race +1 morale, all units on their own terrain +1 luck etc.

If one unit scores 2 critical hits in a row it is given +1 luck, 3 critical hits in a row +2 luck (until end of battle or for 3 rounds, this needs fine balancing).

Morale is increased by skills or commander skill (Commanders give +1 morale to other units).

Here are some examples for Luck skills:
Nature Luck - all elves +1 luck
Lucky Aura - all adjacent friendly units +1 luck
Fortune - +1 luck on that unit (the same as Brave which gives +1 Morale only to one unit).

Facing Undead dragons -1 Morale
Facing Archdemons -1 Luck

Bad Luck for friendly unit is the same as Positive Morale for enemy. Bad Morale is the same as Positive Luck for enemy. So actually there is no difference if you will raise your own Morale or lower enemy Luck - the effect will be the same.

Max/Min Morale and Luck +6/-6
Max/Min crit chance modifier +3/-3

The last means that a unit with +6 morale facing unit with zero Luck still has +3 crit chance not +6, but if +6 morale stack is attacking +4 luck stack, than crit modifier is +2. This gives a nice cap of +30%/-30% crit chance modifier.

Furthermore, at the moment morale gives you significant attack/defense bonus, which I do not like - this is very unbalanced against map armies. This bonus could be divided among morale and luck - morale gives you passive attack bonus, luck passive defense bonus, or both give you half of the present bonus, for the same stacked result when you have at least +3 morale and +3 luck. But the best would be to remove that kind of a bonus, critical attacks are very strong even without it - at the end of the game more than 50% chance for 150% max damage is significant and if you are playing with Gauri against demons (final battles are always against demons) than you always do 150% max damage...Very IMBA
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If we want to have more realistic battle system, we could assign specializations to units such as
Infantry, Cavalry, Siege, Ranged, Spellcasters and Aereal/Flying units.
Using the Rock/Paper/Scissors system:

Infantry does more damage to Cavalry (negating Cavalry bonus)

Cavalry does more damage to Archers

Archers do more damage to Flyers (I imagine than usually Flyers float over the battlefield on some height and are not on ground in between when they move - this is why Archers could spot them more easily).

Flyers do more damage to Siege units (consider this as heavy infantry, not machinery units)

Siege units do more damage to Spellcasters (Brutal strength over Magic)

Spellcasters do more damage to Infantry (Magic over Might)


The bonus damage could be 30% more.

Examples for Infantry: Robber, Guard, Imp, Knight, Werewolf, Dwarf, Succubus, Vampire...
Examples for Siege: Ent, Cyclops, Troll, Paladin, Demon, Executioner...
Examples for Cavalry: Horseman, Unicorn, Cerberi, Centaur, Fire Beetle, Brontor...
Examples for Ranged: Archers, Elf, Hunter...
Examples for Flying: Ghost, Faery, Griffon...
Examples for Spellcasters: Inqusitor, Archamage, Shaman...

Differences between specializations - I will use the Leadership/Health/Damage ratios as they exists in the game:

Infantry: Leadership/Health= 1, Leadership/Damage=10
Example: Knight: Leadership(160)/Health(160)=1, Leadership(160)/Damage(16)=10

Siege: Leadership/Health= 0.8333; Leadership/Damage=8.333
Example, created by me: Guard with 48 HP, Damage 6, Leadership 40, this means that you have 20-25% on top of leadership stat for Health and Damage, comparing with Infantry. If the same unit was Infantry than it would have 40HP, Damage 4, Leadership 40.

Infantry have a little bit more speed and initiative than Siege units.
Average infantry Speed 3, or 2+Run ability, or 2/3 with long attack, Average Siege speed 2, or 1+Run ability. Infantry has higher crit chance as well. Siege has the lowest possible crit chance, since it relies on brutal strength, not agility. Infantry negates the Cavalry Bonus, Siege units does not.

Cavalry has 20% more leadership demands for the same health/damage ratio than Infantry but it has more Speed, average speed 5.
Example: War Elephant: Leadership 240, HP 200, Damage 24
All Cavalry units have the Charge bonus.

Flyers have 5 or 6 speed and when attacking stacks with lower than theirs speed in retaliation they take half damage. When attacked from other units, this does not apply. Logic behind that: first they are very fast and agile, second they attack from air, not from ground (in game animations should be changed).
Leadership/Health ratio=2, Leadership/Damage ratio= 10 (normal):example Flyer 160HP, 32 damage, 320 Leadership - this makes them very offensive and the half retaliation damage gives them some defense - this comes on cost of very high speed. They could benefit most from the Massacre bonus (read below).

Archers keep the present Leadership/Health ratio: 1.4, Spellcasters 1.5 and Leadership/Damage ratio: 8 for both.

These 5 specializations only apply to units from 1-4 level, not champion units (level 5).

To give more weight on Speed a special bonus could be applied for units that position themselves quickly on the battlefield and massacre a single enemy stack - three or more units attacking the same stack are given +20% damage bonus, the attacked stack suffers -1 Morale. Special skill that gives more damage for melee attackers in the first round further could give more impact on speed.